Guide for ball valves



EQSQ G. s. WLANDRE ET AL GUIDE FOR BALL VALVES Filed; July 51, L948 j JV 1%! T OR:

Patented Jan. 24, 1950 GUIDEFOR BABE VALVES,

Gertrude-S..Vilandr andiEinileJl. Vilantlr. Brooklyn, Center; Minn;

AppIica'rtiFm' July 3 1 1 948,. Serial Nb; 411784 e Glaimss. 1':

This invention relates to guides iorhall valves; for insuring the. centering of the: naive ball;- its:seat.

In conventional hometoil'ets a" flush tank provided in which a vertically shiftab'le: hollow rubber ball valve is provided to; control the flow of water from said tank. The guiding mechanism for this ballwill at times permit the same to be laterally displaced so as not. to centrally seat itself in the valve seatprovided at the top of. the. outlet. conduit, thuscausing. leakage: and wasting of water. In the case ofthezhomeiownen' having a cesspool or septic tank sewage system this constant: new of water; therein will soon fill up said system and necessitate repairs andcleaneing. out; thereof long before it would. otherwise. be. necessary.

It. is. an object of our invention. to provide. a. novel and. improved highly efficientguideadaptedi to be attached in depending relation to, avertically'shiftab'le valve ball of a ball valve to stabi lize said ball and positively center the same relative its valve seat.

It is another object to provide a guide adapted to be attached in depending relation to a ball valve for controlling the flow of liquid from a reservoir through an orifice into a vertically disposed portion of a conduit whereby the swirling whirlpool action of the water flowing through said orifice centers said guide and thereby centers said valve relative its seat to assure efficient operation thereof.

More specifically, it is an object to provide a depending pendulum guide adapted to be attached to a vertically operable ball valve for centering the same in its seat and having a conical helical element concentrically mounted on said pendulum for aiding the whirlpool action centering said pendulum to center said valve ball in its seat.

These and other objects and advantages of our invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially through the center of the outlet conduit and valve mechanism and showing our improved guide as attached thereto in full lines and showing the attachment element in retracted position in dotted lines;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of our valve guiding device;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged vertical sec- 2, tion taken; substantially through the center" of; the. outlet conduit: showing our; improved: devices in. operation; and.

Fig; 411s ax fiagmentary; endi elevationalview. of the; attachment. element.

A.por.tion:. of a conventional. fiushtank. 6: with: an; overflow standpipe 1 and. a. valve. operating; mechanism. 8: for. operating the: rubber valve. ball 9 is shown. in. L.. The; valve ball- 9: connectedwitlr the. operating. mechanism 8. asby the vertically disposed. rod. [Brand linkage. H at. the. top. of said rod. Ill. A. guide. l2, fixed. to said standpi'pe I outstanding. relation. thereto and having, the guiding sleeve l2'a slidably surrounding'rod. HT conventionally serves. as the only'guidei' for'the valve ball 9. An outletconduit i3 i'sconnect'e'd in the bottom of tank 6' and thevalve seat HP is concentrically" formed at the topthereof The conduit- W is vertically disposed at-the upper portionthereot and the functiorrof this vertical positiomwill. be: subsequently brought out. The:

lifted from its seat [4 by the operating mechanism 8 and floats downwardly on the surface of the water which flows out through the conduit I3. The guiding sleeve in is the only guiding means provided on conventional tanks and does not always serve to hold the valve ball 9 in vertical alignment with the valve seat l4, and. thus the valve is permitted to be laterally displaced and therefore not centrally seat itself in the seat 14.

To remedy this problem we have provided a guide adapted to be attached to the bottom of a ball 9 and depend therefrom into the upper vertical portion of outlet conduit l3. Our guide has a resilient mounting attachment [5 which is adapted to be retracted, as shown in the dotted position in Fig. l, and inserted through the aperture in the bottom of the ball 9. After insertion of the element into the hollow ball 9, the arms thereof expand and engage the inside portions of said ball as shown by the full lines of Fig. 1. The bottom of attachment element I5 has a connection loop l5a to which a pendulum arm [6 is swingably attached. An element adapted to offer resistance to the flow of water through said conduit such as the pendulum I1 is swingably connected to the bottom of arm or link l6 and additional resistance is supplied by a conical helical spring l8 concentrically mounted around said arm and said pendulum. The spring [8 may be attached at the top to the upper portion of link It as is shown in the drawings or it may merely be slidably mounted around the link l6 and weight H, the diminished upper portion thereof retaining said spring on said pendulum. It is possible to use other elements which offer slight resistance to the flow of Water in order to forcibly seat said ball 9 in its valve seat M. An important feature of our invention is resistance to the flow of water to produce downwardly directed seating force on said valve ball 9.

When the ball 9 is raised vertically to open the valve, the water rushes out through conduit 13 1 and, due to the rotation of the earth on its axis, forms a swirling whirlpool which is materially increased by the helical shape of spring [8. This whirlpool, best shown in Fig. 3, serves to center the pendulum weight I! and thus positively centers the ball 9 and draws the same downwardly to be received in its valve seat M. The spring I8 aids the whirlpool action as well as stabilizing the weight I! and ofiering additional resilient resistance to the flow of water through the conduit. The ball 9 of course has sufficient buoyancy to float regardless of the slight additional weight of our improved guiding device and operates in substantially the conventional manner as previously described with the exception that it is positively centered and drawn into its valve seat l4 when the water has been drained from the tank 6.

It will be seen that we have provided an extremely simple and inexpensive, yet highly efficient valve guide which can be used on a vertically operated ball valve for controlling the flow of liquid from a reservoir where the outlet conduit has a vertically disposed portion immediately therebelow. The spring l8 stabilizes the pendulum l1 and imparts to the water additional whirlpool action which is normally caused by the rotation of the earth. The weight I! serves to draw the ball downwardly as well as centering the same in its seat M. The force of the water on the spring and the pendulum also serves to draw the ball downwardly in addition to positively centering the pendulum i7 within conduit l3.

It will of course be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement, and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of our invention.

What we claim is:

1. For use with a ball valve and cooperating valve seat in a vertically disposed portion of a liquid flow conduit, a guide for centering said ball in said seat, comprising a weighted pendulum with an elongated arm adapted to be swingably attached to the lower central portion of said ball in depending relation thereto, a helical element surrounding said pendulum and, at least, a portion of said arm, means for attaching said pendulum to said ball, the helical element increasing the natural whirlpool swirling action of the liquid in said conduit to center said pendulum in said conduit and guide said ball into said seat.

2. The structure set forth in claim 1, said helical element being substantially conical in shape with the bottom thereof flared outwardly to stabilize said pendulum in said conduit.

GERTRUDE s. VILANDRE.

EMILE J. VILANDRE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

